


Passion Is A Key Ingredient To The Study And Practice Of Law And Life

by mymooonmysunmypearl



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: (he also has a minor in fashion design because I say so), Alternate Universe - College/University, Dance Major Choi Beomgyu, Dance Major Choi Yeonjun, Education Major Heuning Kai, Engineering Student Kang Taehyun, Frat Boy Choi Yeonjun, Friends to Lovers, Law Student Choi Soobin, Librarian Choi Soobin, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29047563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mymooonmysunmypearl/pseuds/mymooonmysunmypearl
Summary: “I need new best friends,” he grumbled, reaching into the draw to his right to pull out a fresh bottle of hand sanitiser, replacing the one that Kai had just knocked off the desk.Beomgyu smiled, saccharine and sweet. “Soobin, the only time you leave the dorm is to go to your classes, the library. or the cornershop when you run out of ice cream. How would you even begin to replace our oh-so-significant impact on your life?”Listen, Soobin knows that college was meant to be the best days of your life. He knows, really, despite what Beomgyu or Kai may say. It’s just that balancing his law degree, his part-time job at the library and two best friends who seem to take it on themselves to make his life resemble the plot to a cheesy, hallmark coming-of-age story makes it hard to relax. Throw whatever said best friends have going on between them and the serious-looking guy from across the hall, applications for a summer internship with his favourite professor, the cute but confusing frat boy that keeps making eye contact with him whilst he's working in the library, and more pints of ice cream than he’d care to admit, and he was starting to realise how realistic all of those movies about college actually were.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 22
Kudos: 72





	1. ab initio

When Soobin’s alarm failed to go off at 6:30am, that should really have been his first sign that it was just going to be one of _those_ days. 

(In fairness, he’d gone to sleep much too late last night, the time on his phone being 4:51am when he had last checked. But it’s not like he could have helped it, this paper was due in just less than a week, and he was not getting caught out like last time. He would rather pull all nighters now, than have to do it the night before the due date, his blood more red bull than anything else). 

But now it was 9:45, and he was running way behind where he should be. He shot up out of his chair, not stopping for long enough to realise that he passed out on top of his laptop, tripping over his feet and almost knocking a stone cold mug of tea off his desk. He stumbled out of his room, barging past his confused roommate as he dove into the bathroom. He pulled off his clothes and jumped into their tiny shower, banging his head on the little shelf where they stored their products. Soobin fiddled with the temperature, flicking the dial from burning hot to ice cold, before deciding ‘fuck it’, and left the water running at a temperature he was pretty sure was below freezing. A knock at the bathroom door echoed around the little tiled room, Soobin hearing it open and close. 

A hand reached through the shower curtain, holding out Soobin’s toothbrush and almost empty tube of toothpaste. Soobin didn’t need to see his roommate’s face to know that Beomgyu was dramatically holding his arm over his eyes, his best friend's gloating words only confirming his suspicion. 

“I seem to recall telling you that you needed to get a good night’s sleep yesterday. Now, we both know how humble a friend I am, even risking my innocent eyes to bless you with my help at this, your hour of need, but I _would_ just like to say-”

“I swear to God, Gyu, if the next few words out of your mouth are ‘I’, ‘told’, ‘you’ or ‘so’ then I will soak you with the shower head, new haircut be damned.” Soobin cut him off, taking the offered gifts, the aggressive tone of his voice convincing neither of them. 

The bathroom door squeaked open again, and for a second Soobin assumed that Beomgyu had left to go do… whatever it was his roommate did whilst Soobin was out in the early mornings. But he could most definitely see his shadowy outline through the thin shower curtain that separated the two. 

“Oh, this is fun!” A new voice chirped, “You two are such trendsetters, standing around in your friend’s kitchenette is so last year.”

Soobin sighed, as he saw Beomgyu’s silhouette turn towards the newcomer. “I know, right? It’s such a time saver too! Tell me more about how cool I am, Kai.”

“How did Kai get in through the front door, Gyu?” Soobin asked, his words garbled slightly by the mouthful of toothpaste. Neither of his two best friends answered him, which meant that they didn’t want to tell Soobin why, or how, or that they just didn’t care. He spat down the drain, and switched off the shower. “Nevermind. I’m getting out now, so if you two could just… leave the bathroom, that would be great.”

Again, the others ignored him, Beomgyu actually starting to talk even louder than before. With a huff, Soobin, still half covered by the showercurtain, reached over to the rack to pull off a towel. His friends yelled, Beomgu reaching up to cover Kai’s eyes, his own face snapping wildly away to face the wall. Kai’s surprised wail made Soobin jump (which was really on him, he’d had enough time to get used to it by this point, surely), and he slipped up in the shower, knocking all of the shampoo bottles onto his head with a yell. 

Ah yes. Definitely one of those days. 

You see, here is what Soobin’s Friday routine should look like: 6:30am, wake up; 7, eat breakfast; 7:30, leave the dorm room, dressed and packed for his day. Arrive at the library around 8 and get a good 3 hours of studying in before his 11am-4pm library shift, stopping for a 30 minute lunch break somewhere in between. Leave the library, and get back to the dorm at around 5, then study in his room for 2 more hours before making himself the culinary masterpiece of instant ramen for his dinner, eating that and a tub of ice cream whilst he watches one of his corny rom-coms that he promised Beomgyu and Kai that he’d catch up on, to understand the pop culture references they liberally sprinkled into any given conversation. But with getting up so late today, and the unhelpful presence of his best friends, it was now 10:30, leaving him just enough time to sprint across campus so that he wasn’t late to take over the front desk. 

Speaking of his friends, Beomgyu and Kai had just plopped themselves down on the dorm’s tiny sofa and watched Soobin run around like a maniac, occasionally throwing in comments about anything and everything they felt like. He ignored them for the most part, until he pulled on his shoes and looked up to see a pair of hands holding out a small sweet bun and a carton of almond milk. Soobin blinked, and straightened up, his eyes meeting Kai’s smiling ones. Beomgyu stood just to his right, holding Soobin’s tattered tote bag, his laptop peeking out of the top. He took the food and the bag with a smile, and pulled the younger two in for a hug- Kai hugging back enthusiastically, Beomgyu with a halfhearted pat on the back. He waved as he dove out of the door, his hand snatching up his keys off the hook as the door swung shut. 

The walk across campus to the library usually took Soobin 30 minutes, at a reasonable pace. Today it took him 15, earning him some weird looks from other students as he pelted across the pavement, weaving through huddles of friends with coffees, textbooks and skateboards. When he reached the heavy doors of the library he paused to catch his breath, before pushing them open and walking inside. 

The main library was most definitely Soobin’s second favourite place on campus, the first being his room. The high ceiling, grandiose pillars, desks tucked away in near silent spots, and of course, the hundreds of rows of bookshelves just the real epitome of academia, in his opinion. The large curved desk in the centre of the room was almost empty, besides one small figure sat at it, keyboard clicking away in the hushed room. As he got closer, the figure looked up at him, and Arin broke into a smile. 

“Soobin, good morning!” She waved him over. “I was getting worried when I hadn’t seen you come in earlier, I was just about to call and ask you if you were sick.”

“Not sick, I just overslept a little,” Soobin replied, walking around behind the desk to sprawl out in one of the empty office chairs. “I know you have a lecture in 15 minutes, thanks for waiting for me to get here.”

“Ah, it was nothing.” She grinned, before standing up and grabbing her iced coffee from where it had been sat next to her bag. “I do have to get going though.”

Soobin said goodbye as his coworker made to leave, watching her do a double take and looping back around in front of him. “I almost forgot to say, Dr. Kim said that he’s going to be off all day today, one of his friends had a medical emergency and he had to take them to the hospital.”

“Oh, that’s awful.” Soobin frowned. 

“I know,” Arin replied. “But he sent us both an email with everything that needs to get done today, and by the look of the way you all but ran through those doors, I figured that you haven’t had a chance to check yet.” Soobin flushed, and she laughed. “Guess I’m right! Anyway, I’m actually going now.” she grinned, and left through the doors at the front. 

Soobin logged on to the ancient computer that sat on top of the desk, pulling his own laptop and notebook from out of his bag whilst he waited for the dinosaur to finish its task, fans furiously whirring inside it. He opened his emails to find one from Dr. Kim at the top of his inbox. Like Arin said, the man apologized for being absent today, but one of his close friends had broken their arm pretty badly, so he was taking him to the hospital, with no confirmations on how much of the day he’d lose to the trip. He had enclosed a list of tasks that needed to be done, some typical for his day (returning books to the bookshelves, repairing a few ripped pages, sending some emails to the IT department about digitising some of the collection), some less so (was that… ordering Christmad decorations? It was only just October…) He looked up to see the familiar screen of the library intranet system on the old monitor, and Soobin was ready to begin his shift.

* * *

The time was exactly 3pm when Soobin looked up from the computer to see trouble walking through the door. He groaned dramatically, burying his head in his arms, as his two best friends approached the front of the counter. Kai reached the desk first, and ruffled Soobin’s hair, Beomgyu catching up just behind him. 

“Wow, the customer service here is impeccable.” Beomgyu smirked, flicking him on the back of the neck. 

Soobin’s face shot up, frowning. “Isn’t this the first time you’ve come in to see me at work this year?” When he got no response, he shook his head, and looked over at Kai, who was fiddling with the bottle of hand sanitiser Arin had become fond of leaving at the front desk. “What did we do to get saddled with him, huh Kai?”

Beomgyu snorted, and nudged Kai’s shoulder. “You both love me really.”

He must have bumped into Kai harder than Soobin had expected, because Kai jumped so hard that he sent the bottle flying off the edge and onto the floor. Kai squeaked, and ducked down out of sight.

“I need new best friends,” he grumbled, reaching into the draw to his right to pull out a fresh bottle of hand sanitiser, replacing the one that Kai had just knocked off the desk. He could tell without even looking that the lid had come off, judging by the panic on his youngest friend’s face and the abnormally high-pitched scream that Soobin cut off with a glare. 

Beomgyu smiled, saccharine and sweet. Most people on campus were fooled by this smile, lulled into a false narrative that the boy in front of him was all sugar and spice. Soobin though, was not. “Soobin, the only time you leave the dorm is to go to your classes, the library, or the cornershop when you run out of ice cream. How would you even begin to replace our oh-so-significant impact on your life?”

“Craigslist.” Soobin shot back at the younger boy. “If it works for grimy hookups and- and I don’t even want to know what else, surely I can replace your useless asses.” He held up his hand, and began to count off on his fingers. “Looking for a new best friend to replace my obsolete ones. Must be quiet, not nosy, will actually respect our age difference-”

Kai’s face popped up from behind the counter, where Soobin assumed he’d been attempting to clean up the spill. A frown started to appear on his face. “I respect you, hyung,” he began, before being cut off by a pat on the head by Beomgyu. 

“Okay, I get it. Seems like you’ve put thought into this, which lowkey offends me.” Beomgyu laughed, rolling his eyes. He knew that Soobin was joking, the very same argument occurring between the two at least once a week. Beomgyu changed the subject, pulling his backpack off his shoulder and unzipping it. Inside, Soobin could see lip balms, hand creams and a single mechanical pencil, but not a whole lot else. The perks of being a dance major, he supposed, included a lighter reading load. 

With a sigh, Beomgyu finally managed to wrestle a piece of A4 paper out of one of the inner pockets, the sheet crumpled and torn. He handed it over the counter to Soobin with a shameful smile as Soobin sighed and took the excuse of a page out of his hand. 

(Soobin was not fooled. In terms of actual dance, Beomgyu never gave less than 100%. He also knew that his actual notes were beautifully penned, like the ones that get posted to study blogs, complete with the pastel highlighters and ornate titles. If this piece of paper was what he suspected it was, then that high level of perfectionism would never be applied). 

He squinted at the words on the page, some of them concealed slightly by the telltale scribbles of someone desperately trying to get a pen’s ink flowing. The title of the page read ‘Intro to Astrology’, and underneath it was a list of textbooks. He glanced up at his friend, who was leaning on his hand, his elbow propped up underneath him. 

“This is… your course’s reading list.” Soobin asked him. Beomgyu gave a noncommittal hum, looking boredly in a random direction. 

“Beomgyu-ah… it’s a month into the first semester.” When he got no response this time, he sighed, deep from within his bones. 

“Let me see if I can’t guess what’s happening here… you’ve put off the reading for the course that you accidentally took, and now you’ve got a test coming up and you have no idea about anything that you’ve studied and you have no idea where to start. Am I right, or…?”

Silence hung over the trio for a second, until Kai nudged Beomgyu, seemingly given up with his task. “He sure read you like a book, didn’t he hyung?” He laughed. "Get it? Because we're in a library-" 

Beomgyu turned his frown towards Kai, and elbowed him in the ribs. Softly, with only a little malice. “I don’t even know why I decided to take this stupid course!” he whined. “But apparently I can’t just choose other arts electives, I have to ‘balance out my studies’, or some other bullshit, so my advisor suggested an introductory science module, and I like astrology, so I picked this one!” The floodgates seemed to open now, and the other two watched as their friend vented out his frustration. “And then when I turned up on the first day, my professor started talking about astrophysics, and equations, definitely not cusps, houses and sextiles, and by then it was too late to back out- and now I’m stuck!”

Soobin leant over the desk, and grabbed his friend by the wrist, effectively stopping him in his tracks. “Number one, this is the library, so you’re gonna have to keep the volume a bit lower than that, Gyu. Number two- now you’ve let that out, how do you feel?”

His friend huffed, and pulled away his arm, crossing them across his chest. “... A little better,” he admitted. 

Kai swung his arm over Beomgyu’s shoulders, glancing at the piece of paper, and then grinning down at him. “If that’s what’s been bothering you, you should have said so, hyung! One of the guys that I do intramural basketball with is in that course, I heard him talking about the professor with some other guys in the changing room last week. I can ask him to help you out if you want?”

Beomgyu just blanky looked at his friend, before nodding. “That...would actually be very helpful. Thanks, Hyuka.” He smiled. 

Happy that Beomgyu wasn’t in any danger of yelling anymore, Soobin turned to face the ancient computer on the desk. He began to type the book titles into the libraries catalogue, adding them all to a list with their locations on the shelves. He pressed print, and spun around on his creaky office chair to pull the list out of the printer behind him, sliding it across the counter to Beomgyu. 

“Okay, that’s all of the books that you should need, plus their shelf numbers. If you find any that you think will be the most helpful, bring them back here, I’ll loan them out to you.” He smiled at his friend. “Also, please don’t crumple up this one? Just in case you need it for further reference,” he said, trying (and failing) to not sound too sarcastic. 

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, but thanked Soobin as he picked up the new list, Kai waving bye as the two of them went off into the library. Soobin sat back in his seat for a second, eyes closed with a small smile on his face, before getting up to put some books back on the shelves. 

It was almost time for Soobin to switch shifts with someone else by the time his friends returned. Beomgyu was holding a textbook in his hands, staring at it with a mixture of confusion and disgust, Kai trailing behind with significantly more books in his arms. Soobin shook his head as they made their way over, dropping the books on to the desk with a dull thud. 

“Are you sure you need that many, Gyu?” Soobin began to ask. 

“Yes, actually, I do. I also know that it’s time for you to end your shift, so you can repay our benevolent act of kindness from this morning by helping me to carry these back.” Beomgyu winked at him, Soobin rolling his eyes in faux disgust. He began to loan out the books, concentrating on his task. He noticed the other two were being quiet as well, which was a little out of the ordinary for them, but at this point Soobin had learned to take whatever peace he could get. 

It didn’t last much longer. 

“Soobin-hyung,” Kai whispered, leaning towards him. “Do you know-” 

“Kai!” Beomgyu hissed, his eyes darting between Soobin and somewhere else across the room. Soobin narrowed his eyes at the two, and began to turn around when Beomgyu grabbed him by the elbow. “No, don’t turn around Soobin! It makes us look like we’re gossiping.”

“But we are gossiping, hyung?” Kai was still whispering, at a volume that most people would consider just above conversational. At the look Beomgyu sent him, he seemed to back off, muttering something under his breath. 

Very confused, Soobin finished up checking out the books. He heard the doors of the entrance being opened, and he looked up to see another of his coworkers, Chaeryeong, making her way inside. With a soft “Hello,” she slipped behind the counter. Soobin glanced up at the clock on the wall to his right to see the second hand just ticking past four o’clock, before returning his friend’s smile. 

“Sorry, Chaeryeong, but we have to steal Soobin.” As soon as she had sat down in the empty chair at the desk, Beomgyu began to shift impatiently from one foot to another. “We have a…” He trailed off, Kai jumping in to finish his friend’s sentence.

“Soobin-hyung promised that he’d help us study for my big test tomorrow,” he beamed at Chaeryeong, who simply laughed, and shooed Soobin from behind the desk. Soobin and Kai distributed Beomgyu's books between themselves, and the three waved goodbye and made their way outside- that is, Beomgyu grabbed Soobin’s elbow and all but pulled him across the room, Kai holding the door open with his foot. 

In true early October fashion, the sun was just beginning to set, washing the campus in a beautiful warm light. Soobin normally would have loved to appreciate it more, maybe take some pretty pictures of the way the last of the sunlight looked against the orange leaves of the trees lining the pavements, but his best friends had taken it on themselves to rain a barrage of questions on him. The speed that the two were travelling at, both with their feet and with their words, made Soobin’s head spin. He stopped in his tracks, and spoke over them.

“Guys, please, I can’t understand either one of you. What’s wrong?” he frowned. 

Beomgyu huffed, crossing his arms. “Okay, but you have to keep walking. It’s getting really cold, plus I’m really hungry, and I just remembered I have leftovers in the fridge.” He watched as Soobin caught up to them in two long strides, and continued on as they went. “Basically, we got a little bit lost in the shelves looking for the section we needed.” A laugh on the other side of Soobin made him suspicious of Beomgyu’s use of ‘we’, but his friend ignored Kai. “So we ended up doing a couple of loops around the bottom floor to figure it out. On, what, the second lap, Kai noticed that one of the guys sitting at the tables was staring at you whilst you worked, but we’d already passed him, so we had to wait until we’d gone around again to look.”

“It must take like 10 minutes to go all around those shelves, hyung, and everytime we walked past him, he was looking at you! And we must have walked past at least 5 times.” Kai added, eager to chime in. “Like, sometimes he was typing, but his eyes kept flickering up and down, sometimes he pulled books closer to him and stared whilst he did.” He tilted his head to the side, thinking. “One time he was just sitting back in his chair, drinking some coffee and just… watching you. It was strange.”

Soobin had been quiet whilst listening to his friends, and Kai must have taken that as a bad thing when he hurriedly added “Not that it’s strange to want to look at you, hyung! You’re very pretty, and when you’re concentrating on something your eyes are very serious and, plus you always look cute in your massive cardigans, very soft! And cute!.” Beomgyu nodded along, apparently not feeling the need to hype up his friend. 

Soobin shook his head at Kai, hoping that a blush hadn’t settled across his face the way it was prone to do when anyone complimented him. “What did this guy look like? I didn’t feel like anyone was staring at me, you know?” He liked to think that he would have noticed if someone had been watching him for the best part of an hour, Soobin not being the most extroverted person at the best of times.

“Oh, he had really cool pink hair, Soobin.” The three had finally reached their dorm, Beomgyu calling over his shoulder as he walked up to the door to type in the pin for the lobby. “Come to think of it, he seemed familiar, but we weren’t close enough to see his face properly.” The others followed him inside, making their way up to their dorm’s door, Beomgyu pulling his keychain-heavy lanyard out of his bag and unlocking the door.

Kai followed his hyungs in, blatantly ignoring the fact that he had his own room just a few doors down. Soobin looked at his closed bedroom door, thinking about all the work he missed this morning because of his alarm not working, the chaos of earlier feeling like years ago. Next to him, he heard the familiar sound of the Netflix loading screen and the playful arguing of his friends filled his ears, the two wrestling to steal the remote from the other. He smiled, hanging his bag on the handle of his door and flopping down on top of his friends, making them squeak and groan. His work, and the mystery of the boy from the library, could wait. He had a TV show to catch up on and some of his favourite ice cream in the freezer- and after his morning? He deserved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is something that I started writing instead of doing my own university essay. I have no idea how often this fic will get updated, I'm not really a very structured writer, I only do it in bursts, but this is something that I'm invested in! So I'll try to come back to it whenever I have the time/energy. Also, I should mention here before I get any further- I am a first year university student at a British Uni, so I have absolutely no idea how American colleges work. I researched it a little bit, but overall decided that it's my story, so I get to decide how the college works.


	2. amicus curiae

“Now, please remember that this is our last lecture on this chapter before the end of unit exam. No excuses this time!” 

Soobin’s lecturer smiled up into the rows of the hall, the smile on his face vaguely threatening as the sea of students began the routine shuffling that signalled the end of class. Professor Kim was, by far, Soobin’s favourite teacher. He had been lucky in his first year, being assigned to the man’s ‘Common Law 101’ slots, his charisma and professionalism drawing in all of his students, 8:30am lecture be damned. Even for someone like Soobin, who would hibernate until the world stopped turning if left to his own devices, he found himself looking forward to those lessons every week. 

Professor Kim was known for being a harsh marker, with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. When Soobin had mentioned to older students that he was in his classes, the reactions ranged from a slight wince and a supportive pat to one student looking him dead in the eye and wishing him luck. Soobin kept to himself in classes after that, crossing his fingers underneath the desk everytime his professor asked for a volunteer to answer his difficult questions. 

Half way through his first year, Soobin had pulled his very first all-nighter in the library, desperately cramming as much information about case studies and terminology as he possibly could, to the point where he had given himself a migraine like no other. At about hour five of studying, he had had the realization that he couldn’t remember anything from the last chapter. The realization made his stomach drop, the frustration that he felt simmering under his skin, paired with the pressure building behind his eyes pushing him to the verge of tears, his breathing getting faster and faster in the way which he knew would not end well, something he thought he had left behind in high school. He remembers looking up suddenly at a soft pat on his shoulder, the sharp movement making his head spin, and seeing the very professor at the root of his troubles staring down at him with a concerned frown. 

Soobin had felt his face heat up under the scrutiny of the man in front of him. This tenured professor, a family lawyer with ten years of experience, head of a massively successful law firm- his gaze made him feel so small, a feat for someone of his height. But the older man’s face softened slightly, as he seemed to take in the mess of the desk, Soobin’s bloodshot eyes and panicked expression, and he had reached over to shut the textbook he had furiously been taking notes from. “Looks like you could use a good night’s sleep, Soobin-ssi.” Soobin had stared up blankly at him, confused at the fact that his lecturer had remembered the name of a student who had said all of two words in his classes, before nodding his head and putting all of his supplies away, making no complaints. It was almost as if the older man had cast a spell on him, the interruption distracting him for just long enough to grab the edge of the table and take three deep breaths. By the time he was ready to leave, his professor had vanished. But when he next walked into class, he got a small nod and a smile from the professor, which felt like validation enough. 

(The 96% he got on his next assignment felt even better.)

After that encounter, Soobin felt more confident to share his opinion in the lectures. It was almost as if the experience had humanised the man in front of him, even if he had only said ten words to him. By the end of the year, he had come out of his shell to a point where past Soobin wouldn’t have recognised himself, one dull Tuesday morning actually starting an argument with the man over an interpretation of a case study. Soobin’s ears had gone bright red when he realised that he had been tearing down his professor’s own perspective, but Professor Kim had only raised his eyebrows at him, and given him a look that screamed ‘keep going’. On the last day of the year, his professor had pulled him aside and all but threatened him to take his class in family law next year. Soobin had kept his promise and more, now in his third year of study with the professor.

Soobin stood and began to make his way to the front of the lecture hall, using his height to push his way through the students milling around at the bottom of the staircase. He didn’t know too many people in this particular group, choosing to sit right at the end of one of the back rows, but student’s recognised him as the really tall guy who’s always happy to lend out copies of the notes if you missed a class. He stopped at Professor Kim’s desk, where the man was digging through a pile of papers. The desk was significantly messier than it usually was, the small houseplant that always sat next to his laptop close to being covered over by textbooks and essays. As if sensing his presence, his professor raised a finger at him, mumbling “One second,” as he continued searching, kneeling down to rummage through a drawer. Soobin awkwardly stood waiting, occasionally waving across the room at the few classmates he did know, who yelled goodbye across the room to him. 

Professor Kim’s “aha!” pulled back Soobin’s attention. His professor had apparently found whatever it was he had been looking for, a thin black file, and moved to place it on the top of a precarious stack of books. He looked up finally at Soobin, and smiled. 

“At least one of the students in this class read the syllabus for this year. I know _you_ didn’t forget the test.”

Soobin laughed and looked down, scuffing his worn out sneakers against each other. “No sir, I didn’t. Can I ask though, is something happening? Your desk looks a bit… crowded” 

His professor crossed his arms, moving to lean against the front of the desk. “I have a couple of new cases that I was asked to review for the end of next month. Plus my final year students have started submitting thesis drafts to me for reviewing, so I haven’t had time to tidy up in a while.” As if to demonstrate, he waved his hand across the desk, almost knocking over a particularly precarious pile beofore stopping to dig out a mug from in between the piles. “This mug was from Thursday _last week_. I’ve been looking all over for it.”

Soobin just nodded, well aware of his own tendency to forget all about simple tasks like decluttering when he had big deadlines looming. His professor looked over at him. “Not that I don’t enjoy chatting with you, Soobin-ssi, but did you need something?”

With a jump, Soobin began to dig around in his back, pulling out a book to show him. “I actually came to thank you for recommending this book. It really made the child protective clauses we were talking about last week make more sense.”

The older man nodded at him. “I’m glad, the questions that you asked were very insightful but I thought that Edgerton could answer it a bit better than my rant. If you have any more questions about extra reading, just come and ask me, I know you’re more than capable enough to handle it. Anyway, how’s Dr Kim been treating you? Ready to file for a class action suit yet?”

“I actually think that I lucked out, getting a job at the library over somewhere like the campus café. I think that my stress levels would hospitalise me if I ever ended up working somewhere like that.” Soobin replied. “Although I did have to start ordering the Christmas decorations last week…” 

“In October? He’s really gunning for the Best Faculty Decoration Award this year.” Professor Kim mused, staring over at the calendar on his desk, a small smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. He blinked a couple of times, before looking back at Soobin. “Well, on that note, I better get going, or I’ll be late to my inter departmental meeting again. I’ll see you next class, Soobin-ssi.” 

With that, Soobin gave a small bow and a wave, before making his way outside, the hallways much quieter now most people had left. He pulled out his phone, checking his notifications to see whether he’d missed anything, before pushing open the doors to the Law building with his shoulder. The large clock face on the building behind him read 11:15, the time on his phone confirming that the ancient clock was, in fact, still keeping good time. He was deciding whether it was worth making his way over to the library when he heard someone yelling his name. 

Soobin looked up, squinting across the courtyard full of students to try and spot the culprit, when a blur of dark clothes bumped into him. He looked down to see Beomgyu, wearing a massive hoodie and his workout leggings, his backpack slipping off his shoulders. He waited a second for his friend to catch his breath, before greeting him. “Hey, Beomgyu-ah. What’s the rush?”

His best friend gave him an incredulous look, before reaching up to sling his arm around Soobin’s shoulder. “I saw you looking wistfully in the direction of the library, and I am this close,” he made a gesture with his index finger and thumb, “to staging an intervention. If you spend any more time there, I think you genuinely might turn translucent.” There was a pause, as Soobin looked at him. 

“Beomgyu, your fingers are touching.”

“Exactly my point, hyung. Now come on, let’s go.” As was not often the case, Soobin let Beomgyu pull him along the pavement towards their dorm, simply not feeling his argumentative spirit rearing its head for once. Halfway back, he heard the twinned chime of their phones, and reached into his pocket to pull his out. Beomgyu made no move to check his own phone, so Soobin began to relay the text.

“Oh, it's from Kai. He said he’s gonna stop by after practice today with that friend he mentioned last week.”

Beomgyu nodded. The two were quiet as they made their way into their dorm, Beomgyu finally answering once they were sat down on their sofa with some ramen and a tv show that Beomgyu had promised that he’d seen good reviews for this time, playing in the background. “I just hope that they shower before they come back. I don’t need that jock energy in my safe space.”

Soobin looked up from his textbook he had been skimming, book balanced on one knee with his food on the other. “I’ll remember that next time you come back from a six hour dance practice without showering.”

“That’s different though! The studio’s showers are so grimy, it’s horrific. I’d rather wait until I get home to shower, than risk growing a new limb from whatever radioactive substances live in those drains.” Beomgyu frowned. “The sport’s facilities got refurbished _again_ last year, their showers are probably run by robots.”

Just then, a knock at the door sounded. The two looked at each other, neither wanting to get up. “Rock paper scissors?” Soobin offered. 

Beomgyu just huffed and pushed him off the sofa. Pulling himself up, Soobin frowned. "That was mature." he said, before blew a raspberry at his roommate. He made his way over to the door, pulling it open to see Kai’s beaming face. 

“Oh look who’s here, Gyu!” Soobin exclaimed pointedly over his shoulder. “It’s my one and only best friend.”

Kai made a little air punch. “Nice! A promotion.” He grinned at Soobin, before stepping to the side. “I brought Taehyun, by the way! It turns out he lives in this building as well.”

Hidden behind Kai, although by no means short, was a boy with platinum blond hair and large brown eyes. He smiled, before bowing slightly. “It’s nice to meet you, Soobin-ssi. I’m Taehyun, I’m on Kai’s basketball team.”

Soobin smiled in return, before stepping backwards to hold open the door. “It’s nice to meet you! You can drop the formalities if you like, I really don’t mind.”

As the two stepped into the dorm, a voice behind Soobin piped up. “That’s not what you were saying the other day, Soobin- _hyung_.” Beomgyu sat up on the sofa, tilting his head as he looked at Taehyun. “You look really familiar to me- have we met?”

Taehyun nodded. “We’re in the same Intro to Astrology class. I sit behind you though, I’m pretty sure, so I don’t think we really ever see each other. Kai said that you were looking for a tutor?”

“Ah, well tutor is a bit formal,” Beomgyu smiled, his eyes glaring daggers in the direction of Kai, who was conveniently studying the zip of his hoodie. “I was hoping for more of a study partner, you know?”

At that, Taehyun nodded again. “That sounds good to me. If we swap numbers, we can arrange a time and a place?” The two pulled out their phones, Soobin moving to stand next to Kai, as they watched the process. Once they were done, Taehyun slid his phone back into his pocket. “Okay, well it was nice meeting you both.”

Kai frowned at Taehyun. “You don’t have to go just yet. If you want to, you can stay and hang out with us!” He offered, apparently ignoring the fact that this was not his dorm. Taehyun seemed to pause for a second, looking to Soobin, who nodded and smiled. Taehyun nodded back, and slowly placed down his bag next to Kai’s. The four spread out across the small living space, it clearly not being designed for such tall people to be cramped in together. 

They chatted as they lounged around, Kai snatching up the remote to change the show on the tv that no one had been paying attention to. Soobin slowly relaxed himself around Taehyun as he told them about himself, nudged occasionally by Kai when he seemed to be downplaying things. He was a first year student, like Kai was, which shocked the other two as he was taking courses a year ahead. He was majoring in engineering too. It was hard to ignore the pure intellect that the boy radiated, from the precise and almost calculated way that he spoke, his quiet stares making Soobin feel intimidated by the intelligence of the person sitting across from him. Him and Kai became friends on the basketball team, Kai approaching him one day like the friendly person he is. He lived across the hall from Soobin and Beomgyu, a fact very pleasing to the latter when he found out he wouldn’t have to trek across campus for study sessions. He also had a roommate, but apparently he barely ever used his room, occasionally showing up to pick up a pair of shoes or a book before disappearing again. He seemed very confident, easily slipping into the conversation, and by the time he and Kai were leaving, it felt like he had been their friend for years. The two left just before dinner, the dorm quiet after the hours of conversation that had filled it minutes before. 

Soobin stood in the kitchen, making himself a cup of tea, before turning around to look at his roommate. “He seems nice,” he said, stirring his spoon through his cup in lazy figure of eights. Beomgyu hummed in agreement, still lying in his spot that he had been sitting in all afternoon. Once he was happy with his drink, Soobin fished his textbook from earlier out from underneath the blanket it had been buried under, before making his way into his room. Once he shut the door, he closed his eyes for a second, letting out a big sigh. He felt more drained than he had been for a while- for once, as much as he would never admit it out loud, Beomgyu was right. He had been getting way too used to being by himself, that just interacting with three others had been tough. He made a mental note to try and spend more time with his friends as he sat down at his desk with his drink and his book. 45 minutes of finishing up some notes, and he would call it quits. “The life of a college student is so riveting” he mumbled to himself with a small grin. 

* * *

It had been almost a whole week since his best friends’ visit to the library, and in that time he had almost completely forgotten about the mystery boy they seemed suspicious of. Neither of them had mentioned it again, and at first, Soobin had found himself subconsciously looking up every time someone came through the doors whilst on his shifts. When he didn’t see anyone with pink hair like Kai had described to him on that day last week (“It was an honest to God mullet, hyung. A bright pink mullet- who the hell has a mullet in this day and age?”), the issue slipped to the back of his mind. 

So, he wasn’t expecting Taehyun’s comment when it hit him. It was a Friday again, and Beomgyu was pestering him at his desk like some kind of Groundhog Day phantom. This time, his partner in crime was shorter than him though, a fact that he seemed to be pleased about, if the smug smile that appeared on his face whenever Taehyung looked up slightly to ask him something was any indication. Beomgyu was chatting away to Soobin as the older loaned out some new books, neither of them looking up as the doors swung open and someone walked past the desk. 

“Oh wow, is that a pink...mullet? You have to be _drunk_ drunk to take a dare like that.” Taehyun mused. He jumped slightly when the other two turned to stare at him, startled by the sudden movement. 

Beomgyu craned his neck, clearly scanning the people inside the library’s main room. When he couldn’t see his target, he turned back to face Taehyun. 

“Did you see the guy’s face?” He asked. 

Taehyun frowned at this, and shook his head. “Nah, I only saw his back, his hair caught my eye as he went past. Why, do you know him?”

A sly grin started to plaster itself to Beomgyu’s face, who grinned down at Soobin. “No, but the last time me and Kai saw him, he spent the entire time he was in here staring at everyone’s favourite librarian.”

Soobin rolled his eyes at Beomgyu’s antics, and passed over a book to Taehyun, who thanked him and slid it into his bag. “Just ignore him, Taehyun-ah. I’ve found if you acknowledge Gyu’s delusions, you just add fuel to the flames of his stupidity.” He ignored Beomgyu’s huff of indignation, and instead turned back to the computer. “Gyu, you can’t procrastinate over here, you have actual work to do.” When he looked up again, he saw Taehyun linking his arm into Beomgyu’s and pulling him away from the counter, dragging him along despite their height difference. He laughed under his breath and threw himself into his work, a small smile on his lips. 

A little later, Soobin found himself pushing the ancient book cart through the rows of shelves, depositing all of the returned books. The front left wheel of the cart let out a hair-raising squeak if he pushed it along too fast, or if he weighed down the cart with too many books, and no matter what any of the library staff did, it never seemed to go away. On one hand, Soobin considered it a blessing in disguise- whenever he needed to find a co-worker in the maze of the library shelves, he could just listen for the wail of the cart’s wheel and use that to find them. Occasionally, he would get dirty looks from students in the library whenever it would squeak next to them, as if it was his personal life mission to distract their studying with a well timed shriek of the cart. Two years ago, if he was to get a glare from someone like that, he would simply choose to pass away, to try and make himself vanish from their line of sight. Now, he stared right back at them until they looked away- and then rushed around a corner out of their sight- which is exactly what he had just found himself doing, after a group of older students had all glared at him as he made his way past them, snickering behind his back. 

Baby steps, Kai always told him.

So it wasn’t that he was now hiding in the encyclopaedia section, per say. No, most definitely not. As one of the most unused sections, it was prone to getting very dusty, and it was therefore very important for Soobin to make sure that it, like the rest of the library, was as clean and tidy as possible. And maybe, if someone was to look around the corner, they’d see him very closely inspecting the lip of the shelf and the spines of the books, his back facing them so that if any of the dust got in his eyes and made them tear up, no false assumptions would be made. Blinking furiously, Soobin straightened up, took a deep breath, and then grabbed the handles of the cart, continuing along the route, before something very bright caught his eye. 

Dotted across the library were multiple desks, some placed in larger, more open spaces for collaborative work, other hidden away in less used sections, secluded and almost perfectly silent. The encyclopaedia section was no different, the dark brown bookcases and tables almost always empty. Soobin never understood why, especially when he was of the opinion that this was the best spot in the whole library to get through his monstrous workload. It was an opinion he had thought that he was completely alone in, until this moment. 

A large window in between the world atlases and the local history volumes flooded the small nook with a warm light. At just before 6pm on an October afternoon, the golden hour was just beginning, making the silent area seem like a moment paused in time, the only sound being the scratch of a pencil on paper and the turning of pages. Sat underneath the window at a table littered with paper and flashcards was a boy that Soobin had never seen before. 

(This was not difficult though, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Beomgyu whispered in the back of his head, when you were an introverted, reclusive workaholic).

Despite being hunched over at the table, Soobin could tell that he was very graceful from the way that he held the pencil daintily in between his fingers, occasionally spinning it around. His long legs were stretched out underneath the table, crossed at the ankles, giving him a wholly unbothered aura that didn’t quite match the concentrated furrow of his brows or the speed at which he was writing. His hair was tied up messily, shorter bangs falling down in his face slightly, obscuring his eyes, the bright pink hue loud in the glow of the afternoon light. Soobin stood and stared at him, wondering how he had missed him on his rounds before, when the boy shifted in his seat. Suddenly, he looked up, his dark grey eyes, sharp and fox-like meeting Soobin’s, who let out a strangled squeak and rushed away from the section, his ears burning red in embarrassment. That was perhaps the best benefits of the eternally squeaky book cart; it just so happened that most of the most embarrassing noises that Soobin made in his numerous moments of distress sounded just like it, and could easily be blamed on the broken wheel.

As soon as he was back behind the safety of the front desk, he flung himself down into a chair and stared up at the ceiling, willing his embarrassment to simply evaporate. Today, the end of his shift overlapped with the start of Chaeryoung’s, who gave him a concerned glance before focusing back on the page that she was trying to repair. He tried to focus on his own work, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how big of a fool he had probably looked. Soobin wasn’t blind- the boy was wildly attractive, and he was well aware of how he looked in comparison, but he mostly was embarrassed to have been caught staring. Desperate to take his mind off it, he threw himself into the last thirty minutes of his shift, selfishly asking Chaeryoung to handle anyone that needed help at the front desk whilst he filed away paperwork in the back office. 

Wrapped up in his warmest jacket, Soobin waved goodbye to his co-worker as he pulled open the door. As he did, Soobin could have sworn that he caught a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye. He pulled the door shut behind him, and made his way into the now dark campus, not risking turning around to check. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry this one took so long to upload, but I've been way too busy recently to get anything substantial ready to put out. Hope you all have a nice week! <3


	3. ad colligenda bona

Soobin was finding himself getting dragged around by Beomgyu at an alarmingly increasing rate. 

He decided this the morning after he had fled from the library, as he was being ushered out of the front door at 10 in the morning. They had met Kai and Taehyun in the hallway, and before Soobin could ask where he was being taken, or perhaps more urgently, finish tying up his shoelaces, he found himself in line at the small ice cream shop at the edge of campus. 

The weather had cooled down overnight, and even with the coat that Beomgyu had thrown at him on the way out of the door, Soobin felt the chill of Autumn beginning to set in. He didn’t really understand his friends’ logic in choosing to get ice cream at this time of the year, but he did admit that the shop was a fun place to hang out- that and the fact that Soobin would never turn down an opportunity to have his favourite dessert. The owner, a bubbly young man with a cheerful fashion sense and an even more cheerful smile like a heart, had gone for the retro vibe, with bar stools along the counter and booths lining the walls underneath the shop’s windows. The four sat at one of these once they all paid for their ice cream, chatting amongst themselves about whatever came to their minds. 

It was nice, being able to just sit back and dip in and out of the conversation around him. Soobin had submitted a big assignment the night before, and now had a little break in between his due dates. Everyone else had also been busy recently, Kai with a big group project on early years’ reading comprehension, Beomgyu and Taehyun stuck studying for a quiz in their Astronomy class, so they hadn’t been able to spend time together for a while. He sat back in his seat, picking at his chocolate ice cream, a content smile on his face. 

“I can’t believe that when one of us finally saw his face, it was the literal hermit who couldn’t pick out his classmates from a police line up.”

Soobin’s ears perked up at Beomgyu’s words, twisting in his seat to face his roommate. “I can’t believe you’re still stuck on this thing, Gyu.”

“Oh, are we talking about mystery boy?” Taehyun asked from where he was sat next to Kai, slowly making his way through his own ice cream. 

Kai nodded enthusiastically. Soobin narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his best friend, who pointedly refused to look back at him as he answered Taehyun. “The very same one! Soobin is literally out here living the life of a YA novel protagonist but refuses to capitalise on that privilege!” 

“What I don’t understand is when, and why, you gave him a nickname?” Soobin muttered, sliding back in his seat. “We made eye contact once, that was it, please let me live my life in peace.” 

Beomgyu scoffed. “With respect, Hyung, you barely even _exist_. You need to come out of your shell more, so you can get a life, for us to leave be.” 

Soobin looked over to Kai and Taehyun, who were both nodding along, Kai eagerly, Taehyun more apologetically. Honestly, he should expect the treachery from Kai at this point, but from Taehyun already? “I can’t believe you’re corrupting Taehyun-ah so fast,” he mumbled. 

Beomgyu just cackled and patted Taehyun on the shoulder. “It was fate that he would become our friend, he fits in so well.” 

Taehyun just smiled at Beomgyu before turning to the whole table. “I actually wanted to ask if you guys were doing anything tonight, but based on this conversation, I feel like I can already guess the answer.” When no one moved to correct him, he continued. “My roommate’s frat is throwing a party, and I promised I would come to at least one this year, if in return he would stop bugging me about it. I don’t want to go by myself though, some of his frat buddies can be pretty-”

“Gross?”

“Douchey”

“Loud?”

Taehyun laughed at the three’s suggestions, a quiet giggle that Soobin hadn’t heard him make before. He saw Kai and Beomgyu freeze up slightly in the corner of his eye, almost comically so, before relaxing as if nothing had happened. “I guess you could say all of that, and more.” He grinned. “I do like my roommate, but less so his friends. Do you guys want to come with me?”

Kai nodded, his face unusually solemn. “It would be our honour to escort you to the party, Taehyunnie.” His face cracked, and he laughed. “We can always leave early if you want, I’ve got some good movies back in my dorm we could watch.”

“Me and Soobin have got loads of snacks too, we could have a movie night. But I’d love to go to a party, I haven’t been out in a while.” Beomgyu added. 

The three all turned to look at Soobin, who had been keeping quiet. From the moment he opened his mouth to try and bargain his way out, he knew he was doomed. “Well, I have an essay coming up-”

“An essay due in two weeks,” Kai interrupted. 

“And I’m actually behind on my reading for next week-”

“You’re not behind, I know for a fact that you’re three chapters ahead of the rest of your class.” Beomgyu threw at him with a glare. 

Soobin took a deep breath, and gave it his last shot. He looked over to Kai, his eyes wide and the corners of his lips pulled down into what Kai liked to call his ‘puppy that just got kicked’ look. This trick had worked many times before, but he used it only in times of true desperation, fearful of what would happen if it lost its magic. He made the mistake of catching Taehyun’s eye, who simply raised his eyebrows. Soobin huffed, defeated, crossing his arms across his chest. “Okay, I’ll come, but I don’t have anything to wear.”

Beomgyu grinned, an evil smirk that Soobin had quickly learned to be wary of. “Don’t worry, Soobin-hyung. I’ve got this one in the bag.”

* * *

The thing about Beomgyu was, for about 99% of the time, you should always do the opposite of what he suggested. It was the year that Soobin had spent learning all he could about his new friend that had taught him this, so much so that it was now almost second nature to read in between the lines of most pieces of advice that his best friend gave him. One year of exposure to Beomgyu’s wild ideas, borderline recklessness and general spontaneity, and he felt like he had a good idea of what to expect of him. Soobin liked to consider himself a professional Beomgyu whisperer, a title that after today he would have to scratch off his metaphorical resume. 

As soon as the two got back from the ice cream place, Beomgyu had rushed into his room, leaving the door wide open. As Soobin had passed, he watched as he appeared to pull every single item of clothing out of his wardrobe. Soobin shook his head, and made his way into his own room, sitting down at his desk with his laptop. He only got so far as logging into the library’s online catalogue before Beomgyu appeared in his doorway. 

Hands on his hips, a frown was set on the younger’s face. “I didn’t leave the door open so you could come and sit by yourself.” 

When Soobin pulled a confused face, Beomgyu sighed dramatically, throwing himself against the doorframe, sticking out his leg for good measure. “It’s a good job you’re book-smart, hyung, because otherwise I think this cruel world would eat you up alive.” He stomped into the room, and closed Soobin’s laptop. “I mean, you’re cute as well, but I actually think that in your case, it just makes this even more tragic. Now, get your butt in my room so I can find some clothes that fit your,” he paused for a second, his hands waving in Soobin’s general direction, “freakishly tall body.”

Mostly confused, Soobin just followed Beomgyu as he made his way back into the whirlwind of fabrics that now comprised Beomgyu’s room. Out of the two, Beomgyu was most definitely the tidier, so it was a little jarring to see the mess that had been created in what must have only been five minutes. 

Even in the chaos, Soobin could see the perfectionist in his roommate at work. What at first glance looked like the aftermath of a particularly wild pride parade, with a surprising variety of colour for someone who almost exclusively lived in warm earth tones, was actually separate colour co-ordinated piles. At a loss, Soobin, pushed a pair of checkered trousers off the end of Beomgyu’s bed and perched on the end of it, more than happy to let him go wild.   
Soobin watched as Beomgyu stood in the very centre of his room, the unusually serious eye at the centre of a storm of fashion. He occasionally glanced in Soobin’s direction, picking up things as fast as he was dropping them back to the floor with a laser-like focus. It reminded Soobin of a film that Beomgyu had forced him and Kai to watch last month, about a fashion designer in New York, and her intern. 

(Kai, who had apparently seen it before, was pretty sure that the assistant was meant to be the main character, but Beomgyu would hear nothing of the sort, insisting that it wasn’t possible for her to be the main character when the designer was in the same movie. The argument didn’t last long, as the two got distracted by heckling the assistant’s boyfriend every time he opened his mouth. Soobin didn’t mind either way, but had secretly agreed.)

* * *

“You know, on second thought, maybe a movie night does sound more fun.”

The four were stood outside of one of the houses on the west side of campus, the thud of a speaker that they couldn’t yet see echoing out onto the street. A couple of people were milling around on the porch of the house, infamous red cups in hand, all in varying stages of drunkenness. Soobin checked the time on his phone, the screen winking up at him with ‘22:03’. Usually at this time, he’d be on his second or third episode of his nightly drama-binge sessions. To say that this was not his crowd was to say the least. 

Beomgyu turned to him, hip cocked and arms crossed. “I did _not_ put all of that effort into your outfit for you to spend any less than an hour and a half at this party. I mean it.”

On his other side, Kai gave him a supportive pat on the tummy. He seemed confused for a second, Soobin wondering why, before remembering that Beomgyu had basically wrestled him into a crop top. He crossed his arms around his middle, and gave Kai a small smile. 

“Well, I hope you guys haven’t forgotten about our movie night!” Kai announced cheerfully.

Taehyun, who had been doing something on his phone, looked up at this, and nodded. “I’m looking forward to it. We could stay for two or three hours, then meet back here when we’re all ready to go?”

“That sounds good to me, Hyun.” Soobin replied. “Are you sure you’re roommate doesn’t mind us coming?”

“I just texted him, actually. I wouldn’t worry about it, hyung.” Taehyun furrowed his brows, glancing down at his phone. “Well, ’texted’ might not be the right word. I think he’s already been drinking. Either that, or he’s forgotten how to spell.”

Beomgyu looked over Taehyun’s shoulder at the screen, and snorted. “I can respect someone who uses the dancer, the squid _and_ the coffin emoji, all in one sentence.” He squinted closer at something on Taehyun’s phone, before looking away. “Well, let’s get this party started!” he cheered, Kai joining in as they confidently made their way up that path and through the door. 

Thirty minutes later, and Soobin very much wished for the party to be anything but started. Preferably, for it to be stopped, at least for it to be toned down. He had lost track of his friends, despite their relatively large heights, way too soon after they all stepped through the door. He had had no fewer than four random drinks pushed into his hands as he carefully skirted the edges of the crowd, all of which he had politely accepted before putting them down amongst a sea of half-filled solo cups. 

How he was meant to last for another minute longer, he wasn’t really sure. One or twice, he could have sworn that he caught glimpses of his friends in the crowd, but they were gone as soon as he spotted them, leaving him all alone again. Eventually, he found himself a nice spot on the front porch. The four had agreed that they would all wait for each other out here when they were done. Soobin was simply following along. 

The air was cold outside, the thin denim jacket that he was wearing not doing much good to keep him warm. He considered going inside to find himself a drink, to warm himself up, but as he thought about it, someone opened the front door again, and the blasting music that spilled out with the person was enough to discourage that train of thought. Soobin sighed, and pulled out his phone. Just over an hour, and he would be warm in his dorm, with snacks and a movie. 

With the door closed, the porch was quiet. Noone else was sat outside anymore, except for the person who had just come through the door and was now stood on the other side of the porch, so the only sounds were the muffled laughs and conversations from the partygoers on the other side of the wall, and the occasional car that rolled past on the street. He passed the time flicking through his social media feeds with disinterest, uninterested in what all of the people he went to high school with were bragging about. The night sky was surprisingly clear, a few clouds covering up what Soobin knew to be a full moon. 

“It’s _you_.”

A voice, surprisingly close to Soobin’s ear, broke through the quiet. Soobin jumped, fumbling with his phone. He turned to reply, his voice getting caught in his throat as it registered who had spoken to him.

Standing next to him, one arm leaning on top of the bench that Soobin had sat down on, was a boy with long pink hair and sharp grey eyes. His hair, which he had last seen tied up away from his face, now hung loose, the different tones in it caught in the light from a small porch lamp. Grey eyes, slightly unfocused from whatever drink it was that was dangerously sloshing around in the cup in his hand, stared directly into his, framed by eyeliner that had been smudged. Soobin’s ears began to heat up as he realised that his mystery boy was standing two feet away from him, peering down at him with a look that Soobin couldn’t describe.

The boy didn’t say anything else. Soobin waited for him to speak, before he realised that the mystery boy was probably doing the same. He coughed awkwardly, clearing his throat, before replying. 

“Yeah, it’s...me?”

With his answer, the mystery boy’s eyes lit up, and he moved impossibly closer. “I didn’t realise that you were going to be here!” Soobin didn’t really know how to respond to this, so he just shrugged his shoulders, looking away. Apparently, mystery boy had enough social skills (or enough alcohol running through his blood) for the two of them, as he kept bulldozing ahead with the conversation. 

“This is the best party that we’ve thrown in ages! Want to know why?” He asked, his hands swinging wildly around whilst he talked. Soobin just nodded his head, already lost. “Well, not only did I finally convince my workaholic friend to ditch his work and come along, but now you’ve shown up!” He laughed at that, with a cackle that made Soobin smile along with him. 

The boy leaned down, a conspiratorial gleam in his eye. “I love the way you scrunch up your nose when someone hands you a book with a tear in it.”

The clouds in the sky drifted out of the moon’s path, the porch suddenly lighting up with a cool silvery light. The two boys looked at each other for a moment, the mystery boy’s face suddenly relaxing as he stared, one of their mind’s filled with significantly more thoughts than the other.

The pink-haired boy cocked his head to the side, not breaking eye contact. “I like your…” he began. 

“My…?” Soobin asked, almost breathless. Was he suddenly asthmatic? It would explain the tightness of his chest, the clamminess of his palms against his thighs. He had shrugged off his friends’ implications that his life was slowly becoming the plot of a movie, but at this moment he couldn’t fault the idea at all. 

Mystery boy opened his mouth to respond, when a loud bang on the other side of the wall made the two jump. Unfortunately for Soobin, he hadn’t kept an eye on the other’s cup, which backfired spectacularly when he accidentally hit the hand it was being held with, causing it to spill all over the arm of his borrowed jacket. It was quiet for a second, before mystery boy started to panic. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” He exclaimed, pulling Soobin up out of his seat. He started trying to pat the sickly-sweet stain on Soobin’s arm with the hand-eye coordination skill of a three year old, before realizing that he wasn’t actually doing anything. 

Soobin just pulled the jacket off, wincing at the cold air against his now damp skin. “Don’t apologise,” he said. “I’m the one who spilt the drink, don’t worry.”

Mystery boy was not appeased by this, apparently. Soobin watched as he pulled off the large hoodie that he was wearing, glancing away as he caught a flash of the other’s midriff as the bottom of his shirt got caught. He looked back as the bundle of fabric was being pushed into his arms, trying to protest once he realised what the other was doing. The stubborn look in his eyes reminded Soobin all too much of Beomgyu, so he pulled the hoodie over himself, surprised at how large it was, despite him being taller than the other. 

Satisfied, mystery boy nodded twice, before grabbing Soobin by the wrist. He made his way back into the house, carefully weaving through all of the dancing students with an ease that suggested that he was very experienced in maneuvering through university frat parties. Soobin eventually found himself in the kitchen, surprisingly vacant of people. He looked around the space, bottles of varying fullness crammed into every surface top available, some cans intermittently strewn around them. A hand grabbed his chin, turning his head to face mystery boy. “Stay here,” he told Soobin, who simply nodded, and watched as the boy made his way back out into the hallway. Soobin leant against a counter, which he immediately regretted when he put his hand in something sticky. On the floor, a sad looking bin bag was sat against the dishwasher door, half full. Soobin looked at it for a second, before picking it up and beginning to clean up all of the rubbish on the sides. 

He found himself getting quite into it, the satisfaction of seeing the actual worktop underneath all of the empty glasses distracting from the loud noise around him. When someone tapped on his shoulder, it startled him, whirling around to face them. 

He looked over to see his three friends. Beomgyu and Kai had their arms linked around each other’s shoulder, although whether this was to support each other or just for the fun of it, Soobin wasn’t sure. He thought for a second that standing around all of these bottles and the remnants of stale alcohol had somehow made him tipsy, before he realized that he wasn’t swaying, but Beomgyu and Kai were, moving back and forth like seaweed in an undersea current.Taehyun stood in front of them, his hand hovering above Soobin’s shoulder. 

“Hey, we haven’t seen you in a while!” Taehyun smiled. He seemed looser, his hair a little messed up, but was significantly more sober than the other two behind him, who were now giggling about something. This actually wasn’t too different from their normal behaviour, so Soobin decided not to worry too much about it. “We’re thinking of leaving, is that cool with you?”

Soobin looked up at the clock, surprised to see how late it was. He hadn’t realised how long he’d been in the kitchen for. Mystery boy had asked him to wait for him to come back, but he had been gone for almost an hour. _He’s probably forgotten about me_ , he thought, surprised at the disappointment he felt at the notion. Soobin linked his arms with Taehyun, and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Dibs on choosing the first movie, though.”

* * *

Sunday mornings in the library were one of the deadest shifts that Soobin had the pleasure of having. He had debated begging Dr Kim to let him have the day off, feeling guilty for leaving his friends so early, and still confused over the events of last night. But as always, his intense dislike of confrontation with authority figures reared its head, and Soobin found himself at the main library desk for his 9:30 start. 

It wasn’t all that bad, Soobin considered, as he stared across the empty desks. Sundays were the only day when Soobin shared his shift with Dr Kim, who always brought in pastries from a little cafe from near his apartment. 

If Professor Kim was his favourite faculty member, then Dr Kim was a close second (their names making this very hard for Soobin to try and explain). The Library Director was a tall man, his wide frame a stark contrast to his sweet smile and kind disposition. He was incredibly intelligent, a seemingly endless fountain of knowledge that he used to help students with all of the problems under the sun, although he was surprisingly forgetful when it came to everyday jobs. Soobin had had to chase after him with his mobile phone numerous times, Dr Kim once forgetting his entire laptop bag after a particularly long shift. Despite this, his presence was a hugely soothing one, and as Soobin watched him approach the counter with a clipboard in hand, he felt his messy thoughts all get swept to the back of his mind, like a disinterested cat knocking a pile of paper off a table. 

Dr Kim sighed as he placed down his clipboard, picking up a small croissant from the box on the counter. “Three more rows, and the cataloguing should be done.” he announced, before taking a bite of the pastry. 

“Do you want me to finish it, so you can get started on something else?” Soobin asked, fiddling with the sleeve of his cardigan. 

The Library Director shook his head, swallowing the mouthful of food and sitting down against the edge of the desk. “It’s not exactly like either of us have a hectic workload today, Soobin-ssi. I don’t mind if you want to do some of your classwork, this is really the only big thing I have left to do today.” He smiled down at Soobin, not unkindly, before pushing the rest of the pastries in his direction. 

The two sat in silence for a moment, Soobin gingerly pulling out a cinnamon swirl from the box and placing it next to his flask of tea, whilst Dr Kim had picked back up his clipboard, the shuffling of pages filling the quiet around them. 

“Dr Kim,” Soobin began, breaking the quiet. The older man turned to face him with a hum. “I actually meant to ask, and obviously you don’t have to answer, if it’s too personal! But I was wondering, what happened to your friend, the one who you had to take to hospital?” 

“Oh! I didn’t realise that I forgot to tell you about that.” Dr Kim laughed. “My next door neighbour tried to climb up a tree, to rescue a cat that he thought was stuck. I told him not to, but he’s a pretty outdoorsy guy, so he was adamant that he could do it, no problem. Well, there he was, hanging off a tree branch and reaching out to the cat, like they do in the movies, when this cat just gives him the most uninterested look,” he pauses, pulling his face into a deadpan look in what Soobin assumed was an imitation of the cat, “and jumped out of the tree. We were both shocked, and then we started laughing at how ridiculous it was. It was so funny, neither of us could breathe for a second, which was when my neighbour lost his balance and fell out of the tree.”

Soobin laughed, and shook his head. “Was he okay?”

“Oh yeah, he just sprained his wrist. But I felt bad leaving him by himself to walk to the hospital, so I went with him. In the end, I probably could have made it in to work for the afternoon, but at that point I’d grown attached to the kid, so I waited for him to get discharged and then we walked back to our apartment building.” Dr Kim chuckled, pulling out his phone and showing it to him. On the screen was a photo of Dr Kim and a slightly shorter man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail and a sling on his wrist. The two were standing underneath a large tree, and as Soobin looked closer, he spotted a grey cat perched on one of its branches. “This is what we found when we got back.”

With that, Dr Kim put his phone away, and stood up. “Okay, well I’m going to get this job finished. I should be about half an hour, so just shout me if you need anything.” He walked away with Soobin’s nod, towards the back of the first floor shelves. 

Soobin pulled out his laptop and with one final glance to the empty doors dove into his work. The click of the keys of his laptop echoed around the quiet room, the occasional student wandering past him, looking bleary eyed and caffeine deprived. 

A shadow fell across the desk in front of Soobin, so he saved his document and shut the lid. “Hi, what can I help you with,” he began to ask, looking up and freezing at what he saw. 

Dressed in a pair of what Soobin was pretty sure passed as pyjama pants, and a threadbare sweater, the green colour of the fabric faded with time, was a person that he was getting surprisingly familiar with the sight of. Mystery boy shuffled from one foot to the other, one hand on the back of his neck in that universal ‘I’m feeling very awkward right now’ pose. 

Soobin was ready this time. This was the library, his preferred terrain. He was going to get to the point, intelligently and cooly, and ask why the boy kept popping up in his life. 

Instead, a dumb “uh…” slipped out, his mouth apparently yet to catch up with his brain’s brilliant plan. At this, mystery boy finally looked at him. He pulled a bag out from where it had been hidden from Soobin’s view behind his back, and carefully placed it down on the desk between them. Soobin stared at the package suspiciously for a second, before pulling it closer and peeking in. Inside was Beomgyu’s jacket, carefully folded up and smelling faintly like laundry detergent. 

“My name’s Yeonjun, by the way.” the other said, making Soobin look up. Yeonjun’s fingers were tapping the desk in an erratic rhythm, but he met Soobin’s eyes with a warm smile. “I realised this morning when I pulled your jacket off the airing rack that I didn’t catch your name.”

Soobin was quiet for a second. “... I’m Soobin.” He finally answered, pulling the jacket out of the bag to bundle it into his own. As he did, he looked at the sleeve that he had spilled the drink on. There was no evidence of the accident at all, anywhere on the fabric, which Soobin was incredibly grateful for. Beomgyu would never let him live it down if he had ruined one of his favourite jackets. After he finished shoving it into his own bag, he sat up straight, the air suddenly awkward around the two. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Soobin spotted the pastries that Dr Kim had left out on the desk. He gestured in their general direction, in what he hoped Yeonjun would be able to interpret as permission to help himself. Miraculously, his miming worked as the other had given a quiet ‘thanks’ and picked one out. Clearly, Soobin wasn’t meant to be a lawyer. He wondered how his parents would feel if he dropped out to become airplane marshall. 

Yeonjun had started talking again, which Soobin almost missed as he attempted to redraw his entire life plan. “Please don’t think that I’m a stalker or anything. It’s just, I see you at this desk at this time almost every week, so I thought it would be the best time to give the jacket back.”

Soobin blinked a couple of times, before shaking his head. “That makes sense, don’t worry. I mean, I’ve seen you in here before…” He trailed off, remembering the fool he’d made out of himself that time. Yeonjun either didn’t remember this, or chose not to mention it (both of which Soobin appreciated) because he just nodded. 

A thud across the room drew both of their attention, as Dr Kim made his way over to the desk, a small mountain of books in his arms. Every couple of steps, a book would slip off the top of the pile and fall to the ground, resulting in a trail of books winding off behind the Director into the rows of shelves. Soobin jumped up and took the top half of the pile, Dr Kim shooting him a grateful smile. The two dropped the books on the main desk, Dr Kim taking a step back to study the piles. 

“I found I missed some old editions in the last sort. This’ll keep me busy for the rest of the afternoon.” He told Soobin. “I was actually thinking that you can finish early if you want, I don’t have anything else for you today.” The protest must have been apparent on his face, because Dr Kim just gave him a good-natured slap on the shoulder and a firm look. Sighing in defeat, Soobin leant over the desk to grab his bag and his drink, as well as his half-finished pastry. 

He began to make his way over to the doors, when he remembered the boy he’d been talking to. Yeonjun was still stood by the desk, looking lost. He walked back over, standing in front of him, before taking a deep breath.

“I feel bad.” He said. Yeonjun gave him a confused look. “I mean, you washed this jacket and everything, but your hoodie is just folded up on my desk.”

“Oh, that’s okay” Yeonjun replied, pulling the strap of his bag up on his shoulder. 

“If you want,” Soobin continued, “you can come with me to my dorm, and I can grab it for you?” Yeonjun paused for a moment, clearly thinking. He nodded, and the two of them set off. 

It was silent between them at first, the only words directions from Soobin. Eventually, Yeonjun began to ask more questions, and an easy exchange began. 

Soobin learnt that Yeonjun was in the year above him, and was a dance major, although this year he had begun taking classes in fashion. He wasn’t the biggest fan of studying, so he had started going to the library a few weeks ago to ‘kick his ass into gear’. He told Soobin that he had a room on campus, but the roommate he had been assigned was super studious, so he felt bad hanging around in his room and making distractions. His favourite music genre was generally any kind of rap, his favourite colour blue, and his favourite ice cream flavour was mint chocolate. 

In return, Soobin had told Yeonjun (“Ah, that’s Yeonjun- _hyung_ to you”, the older had told him smugly) that he was in his third year of a law major, and because of that he wasn’t allowed to minor in anything, lest his death certificate read ‘cause of death: extreme university course load’. He talked about his friends, and how they were the only reason that he even went to the party last night, because he wasn’t really a party person. His favourite genre was bubblegum pop, his favourite colour was also blue, but he absolutely was disgusted that the other actually liked mint chocolate ice cream. 

The argument carried them all the way into Soobin’s dorm building and to his door. He unlocked it with one hand, his other wildly gesturing as he spoke. 

“It’s just frozen toothpaste! Why would you choose that when there’s- hi, Gyu- when there’s so many other choices?” 

Yeonjun followed him in, shaking his head with a huge grin. “It really isn’t, though? It’s very refreshing, so on a really hot day it’s super nice. I wouldn’t expect you to appreciate my refined palate, Soobin-ah.”

From the couch, Beomgyu watched as Soobin laughed, and disappeared into his room for a second, emerging with a folded jumper, his expression bewildered as he stared at their guest. Soobin noticed, as he was passing over the hoodie. “Oh Beomgyu, this is-”

“Choi Yeonjun?” Beomgyu interrupted, his eyebrows rising almost comically behind his bangs. 

“Oh, hi Beomgyu-ah!” Yeonjun replied with a wave. He turned to Soobin. “We have some of our dance classes together.” He said with a small shrug, before glancing back over to the couch. “If I had know that you were Soobin-ah’s roommate, I wouldn’t have stopped by the library to-”

“Wait a second,” Beomgyu said, his jaw dropping. His eyes flickered between Soobin, passing over the hoodie, to Yeonjun, looking up to his pink hair, before starting to grin. Soobin recognised that smile. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse would stop in their tracks, do a full 180, and trot back off in the direction that they came from if they came across his best friend making that face. Soobin realised, much too late at this point, that everything was about to kick off. 

“ _You’re_ mystery boy?” Beomgyu asked Yeonjun, jumping up off the sofa. 

The front door, which Soobin had foolishly left propped open with a shoe, swung open, revealing an ecstatic Kai. “Wait, who’s mystery boy?” he repeated, moving inside the room as he caught the tail end of the conversation, Taehyun following him in. Beomgyu beamed at the arrival of the others, gesturing to Yeonjun like a magician making his big reveal. 

At this, Taehyun’s eyes widened. “Yeonjun-hyung?”. Yeonjun, who seemingly had no problem being at the centre of attention, spun around to look at the two newcomers. His smile, which Soobin was surprised to see still stuck on his face, grew impossibly bigger. 

“Hyun!” He laughed, walking over to Taehyun and throwing an arm around his shoulders. “What are the odds my roommate knows all of these people?” 

Soobin, at this point, felt like his brain was about to melt keeping track of how all of the people in front of him all knew one another. It had been a long few days, really it had, and there was only so much a frazzled law student could take of twists and turns he had previously thought belonged to the movie screen. Yeonjun clearly wasn’t in any danger of floundering if he was left alone with strangers, he rationalised. He seemed very outgoing, and if anything like he enjoyed being surrounded by people. Quietly, Soobin took one step backwards, and then another, continuing his slow retreat until he could close his bedroom door behind him, throw himself down on his bed, and close his eyes. 

Was it cowardly, to use a nap as an excuse to avoid the situation just outside of his door? Absolutely. Did that stop him? No, not one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week on the author is still unsure exactly what colour eye's the boys all have because staring at photos of them to try and figure it out feels weirdly intimate and thus makes me uncomfortable <3

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway if you want to come and yell at me on twitter, you can find me here x


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